It’s a relatively simple premise: Give a monetary incentive to an employee who comes up with an innovative cost-savings idea and pay for the reward with a portion of the savings.

San Diego’s city government will test out that idea for the upcoming budget cycle.

In an announcement on Tuesday Mayor Kevin Faulconer launched San Diego Works, where the city will reward an employee or a group of employees with up to $5,000 for the best idea to save taxpayers money if their idea is incorporated into the new budget.

Faulconer, who said he’s looking for “bold ideas to streamline the bureaucracy and cut red tape,” outlined his plan for the program during his announcement at the San Diego City Administration Building:

San Diegans deserve a government that works for them and that means that City Hall should be as effective as possible. The San Diego Works programs challenges our city employees to come up with efficiency proposals that result in more of our tax dollars being spent on improving our communities.

And the money saved from these ideas can be put toward things like new street lights, freshly paved roads and increased public safety.

Simply put, if a city employee or a group of employees come up with a great idea that saves taxpayers money, they will be rewarded using some of the savings. How much they can earn depends on how much the idea saves the city.

Faulconer, who won a special election in February, said San Diego Works is an example of “a different way of doing things at city hall,” and is something that takes the entreprenurial spirit of the private sector to government.

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